The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-05
IN THE POLICE MUSEUM.
WEAPONS THAT HAVE BEEN
TAKEN FROM PRISONERS.

pany of Standardization Daggers
that Tell Bloody History-The Dirk
that Tomochichi Carried in His Boot.
There is scarcely city in the country
whose police headquarters do not contain a
room which is as veritable an old curiosity
shop as ever existed within the precincts of
grimy London or came under the observa-
ton of the immortal Charles Dickens, and
Savannah has its own. In one of the rooms
of the guard house there are slowed away,
to rust and decay, many wonderful things
which might by the utilitarian be consid-
cred nothing but old junk, and, in truth,
they are nothing else; yet when Officer
Prendible takes them up one by one and
tells, with that fuency which is the incident
of familiarity, the little shreds of history
that belong to each, they excite the magma
ton and make one long to be writer of
romance, that these tales might be pre-
served.
There is nothing at all attractive about
the room or its contents The entrance is
through a barred and battered prison door.
The room is square, low and dingy. Against
one wall lean old muskets enough to arm a
full company of soldiers In the corner there
is a heap of knives and in box near by are
pistols OF every kind and pattern. Another
corner contains variety of swords. These
| last, however, are of recent make, being
| relics of the war, but there is one among
them that seems strangely out of place. 1t
is neatly made and encased in brass scab-
bard. On the hit is engraved, Robert r.
| Scott to W. NJ. Davidson 1t was token
| of friendship that passed between two
whose intimacy is well known to all the
older residents of this city.
MUsKETs THAT HAVE SEEN SERVICE
Among these old muskets one can study
the progress of the art of killing. Some of
them antedate the revolutionary war. while
| some saw service during that conflict. The
| old flint-lock is there in all the freshness of
infancy, and in all its various types. There
are short muskets and long muskets and
small muskets and large muskets; muskets
| that only hardy warrior could use, and
| muskets that were probably intended for
| the raw recruit whose arms had not been
strengthened by the delightful and healthful
exercise OF digging trenches. Most of them
have bayonets into which the rust has
eaten its way undisturbed for years.
The flint locks are most of them badly
crippled, being without their necessary part,
| the flint. They are as useful, however, as
| they would be with it, for even Officer
Prendible said he would not like to shoot
one Off In the same pile there are several
| of the old flint locks which were changed
when percussion caps were invented and
when the gun-makers thought they had
reached the climax of their art. They are
about as useful as the others. Last in the
| list come those which were made for the
| caps after the flint locks had passed away
| The guns are nearly all alike in appearance,
except that some are nearly six feet long,
while others are scant four, and the collec-
ton has samples of all sizes between, but
hai- ice l..
with small bores, while others seem to have
been designed for canister.
PISTOLS BY THE HUNDRED.
The humorous part of the collection is the
pistol box. There are in the neighborhood
| of a hundred pistols in it, and no two of
| them are alike. There is the old iron pistol
with barrel and handle all in one piece and
| the double barrelled pistol with two separate
barrels as large as the tubes of small shot
| gun, both sticking into one handle. There
| is another similar to it, but the barrels are
united. There is a genuine sample of the
old pepper box" probably the same one
with which Mark Twain shot the buffalo
| that climbed the tree after him. There is
four barrelled pistol there with a brass
bound handle that splays out like
the bell of brass horn. and though
it looks as if it might have been made before
the use Of gunpowder spread beyond the
shows that the recent invention of hammer
less guns is behind the times. Some of the
| pistols which are preserved there seem to
have been made for watch charms, and will
almost slide into the barrel of the old time
flint-lock horse-pistol, which is paired in the
collection with duelling pistol of nearly a
| century ago
Firearms have not the terror for the white
man and old specimens only excite interest,
| but cold steel causes a shudder to creep over
one and when one turns from the pistols to
the pile of forty or fifty knives that lie in
the corner cold chills run up and down the
spine. There is a variety of pistols, but it
does not compare to the variety of knives
| All of them are the product of years gone
by, as their wooden handles proclaim, and
they are in all stages of preservation. Some
| of the handles have been broken and are
| wound about with wire. Others are sup
piled with home made handles, but most of
| them still retain the handles put on them
| by their makers
| KNIVES WITH A HISTORY
The hicks in some of them are suggestive.
| What they suggest depends upon the imagi-
nation of the persons to whom it is sug-
| gested, but the hicks might have been
made by using the knives to cut up wood
for fires or in deadly combat to protect
| home from the invader. 1t is case of
''you pays your money and you takes your
choice" One of them, however, Officer
Prendible has an authentic account Of
He gets it from Sergt, Lee, who says that
| Tomochichi brought it over here when he
came, and when he landed at the Ocean
Steamship wharves he began cutting a
plank out of the wharf clerks Office for fire
wood, for which offense he was arrested
and taken to the barracks. When he was
searched the knife was found in his boot
| leg and was taken from him and never re-
| turned.
There are two knives which are of special
interest, and whose histories are of a more
serious nature. One has a blade about
inches long and 2 inches broad at the hilt
tapering to a needle-like point. 1t is double
edged, and has handle of bronze. The
blade of the other is about Is inches long
tapering gradually. 1t is not straight, but
is bent back and forth in the shape usually
attributed to a snake.
TAKEN FROM MEXICAN BANDITS.
These knives were brought to Savannah
by a man named James Detrop, who
marched into the City of Mexico with the
United States army His story of the short
knife was that it had belonged to the leader
of gang of famous bandits who infested the
region about the city, and who was noted
for the bloodiness of his adventures. To
meet him II any of his band meant death,
for he always murdered before he robbed.
l e II.